


One step at a time

by SugdenLovesDingle



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Canon What Canon, M/M, What if?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2019-11-07
Packaged: 2021-01-24 14:03:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21339430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SugdenLovesDingle/pseuds/SugdenLovesDingle
Summary: What if Sarah had been alive for this whole prison mess?
Relationships: Aaron Dingle/Robert Sugden
Comments: 1
Kudos: 43





	One step at a time

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in an hour tonight (after yelling at the show for a long time) and it's basically me working through my feelings and wishing someone would be Team!Robert or at least Team!Robron through all of this.

As far as in laws went, Aaron knew he had it pretty good. He’d been friends with Vic even before he fell in love with Robert and Sarah was the greatest mother in law anyone could wish for.

And thankfully always on hand to smack some sense into either Robert, or him.

Or in this case, a shoulder to cry on.

“He ended it. That’s why he gave me his ring back…at the visit… and now this?! How can he just end it like that? Just throw me away like I’m nothing? Like what we had was nothing?”

“Do you think it’s nothing?” Sarah asked, trying to stay calm as she watched her son in law stuff Robert’s clothes in bin bags.

“Of course not! He meant… means everything to me! But clearly the feeling isn’t mutual.”

“You know that’s not true. He loves you.”

“Well he’s got a funny way of showing.” Aaron said, pausing slightly at one of Robert’s favourite shirts.

“I won’t deny that. I love him but my god, he can be an idiot sometimes. Or a lot of the time.” Sarah said with a chuckle and even Aaron gave her a small smile.

“I just don’t get why he’s doing this? I would’ve waited, no matter how long. I would’ve visited every chance I got, no matter where they moved him.”

“I know love, me too. And I think he knows that too… and I think that’s exactly why he’s cutting contact with us all.”

“What?”

“Think about it, what’s the one thing he’s told you more times than you can count? Other than I love you.”

Aaron frowned in confusion.

“He… calls me an idiot…”

Sarah smiled.

“Besides that.”

“I… I don’t know…”

“He thinks he doesn’t deserve you, doesn’t deserve to be loved by you, or any of us. And we have Jack to thank for that.” Sarah sighed and shook her head, not wanting to let her anger at her ex overtake the situation. “I’ve lost count of the number of times he’s told me I love him so much mum but I don’t deserve him.”

“But… that’s not how it is… not at all…” Aaron said, trying to process what Sarah had just told him. “I would’ve gone with him to France. I would’ve gone anywhere with him… and it would’ve been hard not seeing everyone again… but at least we would’ve been together.”

He grabbed another arm full of clothes and started stuffing it in an empty bin bag.

“Do you want this? Or else I’m just going to bin it.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“Don’t I? I’m so sick of everyone telling me what to think and what to feel! My husband just cut me out of his life and filed for divorce! You know what that feels like? Like someone punched me in the face!”

“And what are you going to do about that?”

“There is nothing I can do, is there? He won’t see me, he won’t speak to me. All I have is a letter from his solicitor!”

Sarah nodded and held open the bin bag Aaron was struggling with.

“That doesn’t mean you have to accept it. This divorce isn’t a done deal yet. You get a say in this too.”

“But how?”

“Same way as he is. Through his solicitor.” Sarah told him. “I called him yesterday after I found out Robert won’t let me visit either. A solicitor doesn’t need a visiting order to see him, he gets to talk to him in private. He’s our way of speaking to Robert now.”

Aaron’s mind took a few seconds to process the new information.

“But… his solicitor can’t change any of this… he can’t make him see us…”

“No, he can’t.” Sarah agreed. “But he can pass on messages, he can make sure Robert knows we’re not giving up on him.”

“He’s given up on us! On me! On our marriage!” Aaron said, his anger rising again.

“And are you going to let him? Are you just going to sign those papers and let him throw everything away?”

Aaron shrugged.

“How can I not? He’s made his decision.”

“Exactly. He made his decision. I didn’t decide anything, did you?”

“No, but…”

“I know you well enough to know you don’t just go along with every stupid decision he makes. You never have.”

“But I can’t talk him out of it…when he won’t talk to me.”

“Write him a letter.” Sarah suggested. “I have. His solicitor will give it to him when he sees him next.”

“Is that what I’m supposed to do for the next fourteen years? Write letters to someone that doesn’t want me in his life.” 

“You know what’s not true.”

“Do I?” Aaron said, sounding like a little boy and let Sarah pull him into a hug.

“Of course. You know him better than anyone, better than he knows himself sometimes.”

“Yeah, well, that doesn’t change anything right now, does it?” Aaron wiped his eyes and looked at the bin bags around him. Everything Robert was and is just packed away in black plastic bags.

“Not right now. But nothing is lost unless we let it.” Sarah said determined. “If you want, I’ll take these clothes and store them in my house, I can do that with everything you don’t want to look at right now.” She offered. “And when you’re ready, whenever that may be, you come get it back.”

“You make it sound so simple.” Aaron sniffed.

“We’ll just take it one step at a time. Until he is back with us, where he belongs.”


End file.
